Don’t think this is correct. My list of devices is littered with the old devices I restored backups from onto new devices. I have to do extra steps to wipe and remove a device to be able to be adopted by new homes.
That said, it is a pet peeve of mine that the new phone from old backup workflow doesn’t prompt for a new device name or to rename the old device. Reusing the name can be confusing if/when you still have both devices.
Yeah, I just checked my account and the phones that I didn't sell or send back to Apple are all still in my account, despite all being on the same backup chain.
I suspect that the user above fell victim to something similar to what was mentioned in the article and had the device removed from their account that way.
That said, it is a pet peeve of mine that the new phone from old backup workflow doesn’t prompt for a new device name or to rename the old device. Reusing the name can be confusing if/when you still have both devices.